KIrkpatrick Street

When I first recovered this memory, I started to look at my life differently. Thinking about how the bad memories are the easiest to recall, thinking about all of the good I haven't recalled yet.

“Double Decker house” was the name I gifted my warm green castle 

My mind extends a vivid memory

Sitting on the carpet

Small head resting on mommy’s  knee

Cheeks wet with tears, my tender scalp 

Anticipating when the combing, parting and pulling would end 

I was so tender-headed. 

“Beauty is pain.”

I heard this whenever I got my hair braided 

I remember Uncle laughing to Mommy

This memory embodies him in true form

Joking and spreading light

Football was on the television, Steelers and Green Bay

The aroma of dinner navigating itself through the castle 

Once my hair's finished, Mommy looks into me

Tells me I’m beautiful and hugs me tight

Memories like these are harder to recap 

The unpleasant sits dormant 

Held together through

People who’ve surrounded me 

Molded by these experiences, mirrored in my behavior 

Choosing not to confront the heavy cause soon I’ll be fortified

Exposed and disposed are the feelings about the past

Recalling what is shown to me in this form

A foreign experience

Holding my mind in water, am I telling my story right?

Those remnants stick through while being submerged daily

These patterns are nothing but a reflection

Sculpted by lastingness 

Never denying what made and broke me 

Author's Note

This was one of the first poems I wrote in my life

Reviews

[jacob erin-cilberto]

I wonder why that is...that the bad memories are easier to remember.
I like the last several lines...water torture to get the story straight.
and "Sculpted by lastingness/ never denying what made and broke me"---
the bad experiences probably form who we are even more than those that strangely good.
the Steelers and Green Bay....a detail remembered of the story....I was recalling an old circumstance I was in to my class the other day.
It was an embarrassing story...and I commented how certain little details are so easily remembered...
For an early poem, this is so engaging...
j.

[Sha]

I like seeing how people decipher my poems, thank you for showing what sticks out to you ;). Once I understand the meaning of the words everything goes together so well, that's how I felt reading your piece!